Tag Archives: National Novel Writing Month

Happy Halloween week! Halloween is so exciting now that I have a little one! My little strawberry is going to playdates, trick-or-treating, and sing-alongs dedicated to this not-so-spooky holiday. So much fun!

Strawberry at a Halloween jam.

You know what else is exciting about Halloween week? When it ends, NaNoWriMo begins! We’ll all have sugar-highs and optimism as we dive into these projects we’ve been thinking about for so long. I am ready! I’m through with the planning, wondering, and mapping! I want to write! (It just occurred to me that some of you are probably child-free and will be starting NaNo with a hangover…probably after making out with a slutty green crayon all night. That is cool too. Let me know how that goes.)

I’m taking my wobbly-walker trick-or-treating as my NaNo prep this week. Mama is going to load up on candy–the fuel of word-sprint-when-I-can writers!

Looking for a fun way to kick off NaNo? I’ll be joining @FriNightWrites #writeclub to get my first 1667 words. Hope to see you there! (I’m @penandstink)

You guys…with a sick family, a kid learning to walk, and Homeland marathons during my downtime, I’ve been MIA. But I’ve been thinking and brainstorming about the novel I’m going to start writing during NaNoWriMo. This is going to happen.

I wrote a bit during my last writing workshop and it was well-recieved. I’m feeling pumped! Is it NaNoWriMo time yet?

Also, I am 100% certain that I won’t win this year, but my personal goal is to write something every day. No matter how much my daughter drunk-walks that day; no matter how good Season 2 of Homeland is; no matter how sick we get with the next strain of cold-from-hell…I WILL write every day in November.

Anyone else off-roading for this NaNoWriMo? Just me? OK! Hope the rest of you write all of the words!

I spent my Sunday morning in a coffee shop writing. It was great. My writing was horrible. But being out of the house, milking a medium latte, and writing sans child nearly trumped the hair-tearing-out anger I was experiencing as I wrote, revised, and my story didn’t budge a centimeter.

I know what this book is about. I have mapped out the story. I even know how the climax of the story will play out. And am stuck on the beginning. Beginnings used to be my thing. I thought that setting up the bones and foundation of the story would help me avoid the pain of writer’s block. Nope.

I could have skipped to the middle — the part of the book that is organized and more or less mapped out — but I stubbornly attempted to pound out a direction for the beginning. How do I get from the introduction of my character/story to the middle action? You aren’t supposed to answer that. I have to.

My plan is to just write the damn first draft and get on with it. Easier said than done. But that is what NaNoWriMo is for, right? I’ll keep trying to brainstorm-write until November…then it is go-time.

At least I have Writing Workshop tomorrow night. Another opportunity to write and work through this blurgh!

You guys, I know what my next writing project is going to be!! *Gasp!*

I’ve mapped the story out in a very general sense. And I am going to work on mapping out the specifics this week. I am excited! I love the idea! I love the structure! I’m in love, love, love! I even did a few writing sprints on Friday to brainstorm and get a feel for the protagonist. Did I mention this story is “the one” and I’m in love?

Basically, I have the pre-writing stages equivalent of a dating profile of my perfect man in my inbox and he wants to get to know me!! Is he too good to be true? Will we mesh? Will he show up to our first date with a popped collar and ruin everything? I don’t know where this will go, but I’m going to put on my hottest pair of jeans, some lipstick, and find out!

Also, thanks to this blog I realized that we have to write TONS OF WORDS each day to complete NaNoWriMo!! A little less than 1700 if you are consistent each day. I am consistently inconsistent, so crap! Hope my project likes “quirky” girls!